Howard does what...How long is Brown safe?

Ryan Howard fielded grounders at first base for the first time with Chase Utley by his side, and then Howard hit off live pitching in the cage.

Howard, who is eligible to come off the disabled list Aug. 17, said he felt good and didn’t have any setbacks, even when he took full swings in his regular stance.

“I didn’t try to go took hard; Just tried to take it easy with pivoting and everything like that,” Howard said. “Hopefully I’ll continue to get the swelling to go down today and get some of that ache and pain out.”

Howard said that pushing off and accelerating will be the biggest challenge once he does come off the DL. But he’s confident that he will be activated either on Aug. 17 or shortly thereafter.

“I’m not going to force it,” he said. “The worst thing you could do is try to come back before you’re ready and then just go back on the DL.”

VICTORINO IS BACK

And I'm sure you've heard, but center fielder Shane Victorino was activated before Thursday's game and LHP Antonio Bastardo was optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley.

Although Bastardo only arrived a few days ago and made just one appearance, manager Charlie Manuel said he didn't want to have a short bench (Ross Gload strained his groin Wednesday night and is day-to-day), hence the reason Bastardo went down and not Dom Brown.

“Being Gload got hurt, we wanted another guy on our bench," Manuel said. "I already made my lineup. I told Francisco he was going to play last night. I already made my lineup and Victorino wasn’t here yet. I didn’t want to go tell Francisco he wasn’t playing after telling him last night after the game that he wasn’t going to play."

BACK TO BROWN

Somehow, the conversation always seems to turn to Dom Brown.

Once Gload is deemed healthy enough to return, which would give the Phillies a deeper bench, the team may make a move to give them 13 pitchers again. That would mean that if they recall Bastardo, they’d again have two lefties and four bench players if the team decides to send Brown back down to Triple-A, which they very well may do.

“That’s a possibility, but we haven’t discussed that yet,” Manuel said. “Ross got hurt and everything … so that doesn’t mean [Brown] is going to go [to Triple-A] right now. He’s better off playing. We don’t know how much we can play him. At the same time, we like him and I like him. I think he’s not a finished product yet, but that’s OK. He’s gonna be one of these days.”